Case Number 17271

MISTER ED: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

The Charge

"Hey Wilbur...the complete first season of our show is now on
DVD!"

Opening Statement

No one can talk to a horse, of course.

Facts of the Case

Wilbur Post (Alan Young, The Time Machine) and his wife Carol (Connie
Hines, Bonanza) have just moved into their very first house. It's a nice
place in a nice neighborhood. There's a lovely yard, a barn in the back,
and...why, there's a horse in the barn, too. Initially, Wilbur and Carol
consider selling the horse, but then Wilbur makes a remarkable discovery: the
horse can speak English! He attempts to convince others of this exciting
discovery, but unfortunately the horse (who goes by the name of Mister Ed) won't
speak to anyone other than Wilbur. Ed's remarkable gift and his stubborn refusal
to share it with anyone else will bring a ceaseless array of both joy and misery
to the life of Wilbur Post.

All 26 first season episodes are spread across four discs.

Disc One * The First Meeting * The Ventriloquist *
Busy Wife * Kiddy Park * Stable for Three * Sorority House * Ed the Lover * The Pageant Show

The Evidence

It had been a pretty long time since I had watched an episode of Mister
Ed when I received this first-season set. Though I enjoyed some of these
episodes during my childhood, I remembered very little about the show other than
that it was about a talking horse who was friends with a guy named Wilbur.
Looking at Mister Ed again through my oh-so-jaded modern eyes, I
certainly noticed a number of problems that completely flew over my head when I
was young. Even so, I'm pleased to report that many of these first-season
episodes still hold up quite well as light, entertaining, well-crafted
comedy.

You wouldn't think that one could do a whole lot with talking horse jokes,
and you'd be right. There are a few different gags that are repeated over and
over again. For instance, Ed loves listening in on other people's telephone
calls, and offers a guilty "Whoops!" every time Wilbur catches him.
Wilbur constantly forgets that he isn't supposed to tell anyone that Mister Ed
can speak, and has to find a way to back out of such declarations whenever he
accidentally makes them. Mister Ed will toss out a sentence or two every now and
then around someone else, and Wilbur will attempt to convince that person that
he was the one who actually said it. And so on and so forth. Fortunately, these
routines are merely conventional spices rather than the meat and potatoes of the
program.

The actual plotting can be quite comically inventive at times, usually
centering on the hapless Wilbur's attempts to carry out some sort of terribly
complicated plan. Most of this material works thanks to actor Alan Young, whose
portrayal of the ineffectual Wilbur Post is consistently amusing. Young has the
breezy comic grace of someone like Eddie Cantor, and manages to provide an
entertaining combination of physical and verbal comedy during his scenes. Connie
Hines is also quite good as Wilbur's sweet wife, though her character does
suffer from being forced into some stereotypically sexist situations (more on
that in a moment). My favorite cast member is Allan Lane as next door neighbor
Roger Addison, who tends to look on the semi-preposterous events of the program
with a sense of perplexed superiority. Lane is deservingly given much of the
best dialogue in the program.

The full frame transfer is quite solid, with exceptional detail and a
surprisingly minimal level of scratches and flecks. The folks at Shout have done
a nice job of cleaning these episodes up. The mono audio is perfectly adequate,
despite a bit of distortion from time to time. Extras are limited to a single
audio commentary with Alan Young and Connie Hines in addition to a video
interview with the same pair.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Though Mister Ed has avoided dating as badly as many sitcoms of the
1960s, some of the less-than-progressive social values of the era are
unfortunately very much intact in this program. The biggest problem is the way
the show treats women (particularly Wilbur's wife). For instance, one episode
("Busy Wife") has Carol joining a women's political activism group.
That's all good, right? Sure, until you see the derisive manner in which the
writers treat the group. In addition to belittling the political efforts of
women, the episode suggests that Carol has forgotten her place by stepping out
of the kitchen (and by default, her husband). How dare a woman spend her time
doing something good for society rather than cooking or cleaning? That's just
what Wilbur wants to know, and he unleashes a plan to make sure that Carol gives
up such "silly" ideas and resumes her role as his doting slave. In
addition, you'll find a handful of racial stereotypes that pop up from time to
time (Wilbur answers the phone by saying, "Velly velly solly, nobody home
light now.").

Closing Statement

The first season of Mister Ed isn't quite my cup of tea, but I have to
admit that it does what it does quite effectively. Fans of the show should be
happy to have the complete season made available for the first time.

The Verdict

Not guilty, considering that Mister Ed is better than it has any right
to be.